9 Lives
by TheConjuringMind
Summary: Alternate Universe - NO POWERS. Claire Bennet suddenly develops the inability to feel pain, and after seeking medical help, she discovers she has a rare variation of the condition CIP, and begins closing herself off from others, considering herself a freak. But when an old friend comes back into her life, she starts seeing her situation in a whole new light. ClairexZach
1. Running into Zach

**A/N I really liked Claire and Zach's friendship in the first season, and was extremely disappointed that he wasn't in season 2. Their relationship had so much potential it's crazy that they didn't end up together! D: **

**I came across some good one-shots of them on here, but not really any multiple chapter stories, so I figured I'd contribute some of my own ideas. I hope you enjoy them. :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Heroes.**

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><p><strong>"9 Lives"<strong>

Claire held her messenger bag close, keeping to herself as she maneuvered through the school's halls. Normally she would be conversing with her fellow cheerleaders, chatting and gossiping. But after being diagnosed with "the condition", as they called it, she'd just completely shut herself off from all other people. She didn't really see the point in having relationships now, if she couldn't feel anything to begin with. _All_ humans felt _something. _She was practically a _monster._

No.

Even _worse._

She was a _freak. _

An outcast.

Although no one else in the school was aware of her condition, and _thank goodness _for that, she still felt inwardly distant from everyone else. She could hardly enjoy the feeling of touch in general, because her brain vaguely registered feeling.

Sure, it had some perks. Like those annoyingly painful moments when you accidentally stub your toe, or when you're taking a piping-hot tray out of the oven with no gloves on.

But even though she couldn't feel the pain, that didn't mean that the damage wasn't still there. She still acquired quite a few burn marks from various hot objects; like the oven, stove, clothing iron, etc.

Mr. Bennet, her father, had told her to be more careful with such things, but it was often hard to do when she couldn't feel the pain leading to the cause of the problem. She had to be constantly checking her hands and fingers for minor cuts and burns, and often times she would forget that the cookie tray was still piping hot, or that the heated electric stove was left on, and she would end up with yet another unknown burn mark.

Claire made a final turn through the halls, trying to locate her locker as a wave of students pushed past her, causing her to lose her grip on her bag, and ultimately have it fall to the floor, spilling all its contents. She sighed irritably, bending down to retrieve her items. She slowly tilted her head upwards to identify the culprit.

It was none other than Brody Mitchum; the football quarterback.

"Oops, sorry Claire, I didn't see you there." He said in mock concern, flashing his devilish smile.

"Oh, no, don't worry about me." She said sarcastically, rising up to his level, bag in hand.

"Do you need some help standing up, Princess?" He teased.

"I'll be fine on my own, thank you." She replied, turning on her heel.

And for a brief moment, her edgy walk-away might have been seen as cool.

Had it not been for her totally wiping out as she was accidentally shoved into a locker by an unsuspected teenage boy. Heavily embarrassed (and extremely annoyed) she fell to the ground. Even though she couldn't feel the pain of the impact, she still saw stars.

"OH MY GOD!" The teen boy shrieked in shock.

She could already hear Brody behind her, cackling over her defeat.

Claire shook her head, disoriented, and began picking up her items once again.

"I'm so sorry," The familiar boy apologized sincerely. "Here, let me help you," he immediately began picking up her pencils, books, and other school supplies, frantically stuffing them back into her bag.

"I wasn't looking where I was going, are you okay?" He asked, genuinely concerned. Claire froze in place when she recognized who had run into her.

_Zach_.

She hadn't spoken to him since 6th grade. They kind of drifted apart when she started hanging out with the popular kids. And because of her selfish fear of losing her popularity, she quit being around him altogether. So you can imagine how awkward it was for her to run into him. Or, in this case, have _him_ run into _her_.

"Um, Claire?" Zach questioned, slowly waving his hand in front of her to get her attention.

She quickly blinked herself out of her trance.

"Mm, yeah?"

"I said, 'are you okay?' "

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," She waved him off and stood up swiftly, rotating herself around to show him there wasn't any damage.

"See? Just fine."

Claire's brave face immediately depleted when she saw Zach's horrific facial expression. His jaw dropped and his eyes were as wide as saucers, staring down at something on her.

"YOU'RE BLEEDING!" He exclaimed, pointing at her.

Claire followed his gaze. She saw that her left leg was oozing a crimson color out of a deep-looking gash.

What was she supposed to do now? If she didn't cry out in pain he'd be sure to suspect _something_, but if she _did_, it would definitely draw attention, something she was not very fond of. Not wanting to be discovered, she did the only thing she _could_ do to save her dwindling reputation.

She yelled.

"Ow!" She knelt down to hold her leg, pretending to be in pain.

A few students turned their heads in her direction, curiosity evident on their faces. Now that she practically had the whole school's attention, there was no going back now.

"Claire?" A man's voice questioned from somewhere in the hall.

She looked in the direction the voice was coming from, and saw Mr. Bishop, her English teacher, sprinting towards her.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Mr. Bishop knelt down beside her and put his arm on her shoulder.

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><p><strong>AN Did you get what I did there? :D I just used Bob Bishop (Elle's father) for Claire's English teacher! Haha! XD  
><strong>

**Okay, I have three possible scenarios on what could happen next, but I'm not sure which one to choose, so I'm hoping you can help me decide by dropping me a review with one of the following choices;**

**A) Claire tells Mr. Bishop it was Brody's fault, resulting in him getting a detention, Claire gets sent to the nurse's office, and Zach and her bond over their disliking towards Brody.**

**B) Mr. Bishop assumes Zach was the culprit despite Claire's protests, sending him to detention. And Claire goes to the nurse's office, later Claire apologizes to Zach after school for the misunderstanding.**

**C) Claire tells Mr. Bishop it was her own fault for running into Zach, and gets herself sent to the nurse's office. Zach follows her on her way home from school and they have a friendly chat.**

**Yeah, they pretty much all involve Claire getting sent to the nurse's office. But hey, you get the point, right? Please review and let me know which one you choose! **


	2. Nurse's Office

**A/N Sorry for the slow update, I am working on another story. I hope you enjoy this next chapter. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Heroes.**

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><p>"Did someone hit you?" Mr. Bishop asked.<p>

Claire shook her head.

"No, Mr. Bishop. I..." She struggled to find the right words. "I ran into a locker..." She sighed.

His eyes held her gaze intensely.

"Did someone _push_ you?" He asked, voice firm.

Her eyes shifted towards Zach, and he looked at her pleadingly. He probably thought that she'd tell and get him sent to the principal's office. The thought that he no longer trusted her anymore and was probably intimidated by her, made her feel sad.

She had half a mind to blame her incident on Brody Mitchum. He was basically the cause of all this chaos.

"It was an accident!" Zach blurted out.

Mr. Bishop turned his head to face him.

"I-" Claire looked at him sharply before cutting him off from his sentence. "Yes," she interjected loudly, causing Mr. Bishop to whip his head around in her direction.

"It was an accident. I'm such a clutz," She smiled falsely. "I'm always running into _something."_

Mr. Bishop looked at her with an expression of confusion, while Zach looked at her with one of shock.

"That's funny," He said.

"I'd think you'd be very coordinated, considering you're a cheerleader and all..." Claire's eyes grew wide before she was able to catch herself.

"Uh...yeah, you'd think it, wouldn't you?" She laughed nervously.

"It was a miracle I made the team," she finished. And she wasn't lying. At least, not entirely. anyway. She never would've made the team to begin with if it wasn't for Jackie Wilcox, her former friend, pulling a few strings.

But it wasn't because she was clumsy or uncoordinated - she was quite the opposite - it was because the fellow cheerleaders, for whatever reason, had no liking towards her whatsoever.

"They must really like you, Claire." Mr. Bishop smiled softly.

"You have no idea..." she muttered.

They all fell silent. Claire looked around the hall shyly.

Her staring audience had since departed after learning there was nothing exciting happening on another typically boring Monday morning.

"Well, Claire," Mr. Bishop spoke up, rising to his feet. "I can take you to the nurse's office, if you'd like." He pointed down the hall.

Claire stood up slowly, pretending to be in pain.

Zach, noticing her distress, held his hand out for her to take. She reluctantly took it.

She wondered how he could be so nice to her, despite the fact that she'd _never _been nice to him. Even when they were friends in 6th grade.

"No thanks, I can manage," she reassured.

"Are you sure? That's a pretty mean-looking gash. You should definitely get the nurse to look at it." He looked at her worriedly.

"I'll be _fine," _she waved him off.

_"_It's nothing that a few bandages can't fix," she replied confidently, even though she wasn't quite so sure herself.

He raised a brow while adjusting his slightly disheveled tie.

"Claire," he said sternly.

"I want you to go to the nurse's office, whether you think you need to or not."

She rolled her eyes.

"And you," He looked at Zach. "I want you to make sure she does." And with those words, he departed.

Zach looked at her sheepishly.

Claire was the first one to speak. "Thanks."

He looked at her quizzically. "Um...For what? Running into you?"

"No," She laughed, shaking her head. "For picking up my bag, and helping me up...and for apologizing even though it was _clearly_ my fault." She mumbled.

"Oh...well, you're welcome, then." He smiled, shrugging.

She nodded once, then turned on her heel-much more carefully this time-and started making her way to class.

She hadn't been walking for five seconds before she realized he was following her.

"You don't have to take me to the nurse's office," she said over her shoulder. "I can get there myself."

Zach didn't reply, but she figured he got the message when she no longer heard his footsteps behind her. But after a few minutes of navigating the near-dead hallways by herself, she actually wished he was still following her. Or that anyone was following her, for that matter. Being alone in the halls made her feel sick to her stomach.

Spotting the door that said; 'Nurse's Office' in bold black letters, she came to a halt.

She knew that as soon as she set foot in the room, everything would change. She contemplated running back to her locker and retrieving the enourmous stash of band aids she had hidden in a little pink box, but decided against it due to her lack of medical knowledge.

She would have no idea what to do with a gash as big as the one on her leg. Would she wrap it up in gauze? _Should _she wrap it up? Could the cut get infected if she didn't change the gauze out regularly? If she could feel the pain of it, would she be more alarmed than she was?

She laughed to herself at the thought of using pain-killers to suppress the discomfort she should've felt. Clearly, this was a job for the nurse.

Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself for whatever was ahead.

She slowly turned the knob and opened the door.

"Hold on a sec, I'll be right there!" Came a voice from somewhere in the room.

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><p><strong>AN Can you guess who the nurse is? :P**


	3. The Nurse

**Disclaimer: I Don't Own Heroes.  
><strong>

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><p>Claire looked around to see where the voice was coming from, but there was no one in the room. To her left, there were two white cupboards-presumably filled with needed medical supplies-a white counter top with scattered papers and envelopes, a small square-shaped trash bin, and a corded telephone.<p>

To her right was a long white desk. On the desk was a pair of shiny silver tweezers, a clip-board with a thick amount of paper in it, and a small, framed picture of two men side-by-side, one arm over the others' shoulder, both smiling. In the middle of the room was a chair. Similar to that of a dentists chair, and beside it was a cushioned metal stool.

"You still there?" Came the voice again, causing Claire to jerk a bit in surprise. She looked around herself once more, and discovered that there was an open door on the far left side of the room, past the cupboards and counter tops. She must have missed it because of how far the said objects in the room protruded from the wall.

"Yeah," Claire called back to the person, leaning to her right side to peer into the open door.

"I'm still here."

"Good," Came her reply.

Claire absently wandered over to the desk on the right side of the room while she was waiting, and picked up the picture of the two men. She tilted her head sideways and glanced at it. Even though the two men had different hair colors, she could tell they were brothers, or at least close friends.

The taller one (and presumably the older one), had shiny brown hair, combed over to one side. The younger one had longer black hair, parted at one side, but not combed. Instead, his locks hung off of his forehead and fell slightly into his face, causing him to look much younger than the other man. Even though each of their arms were over each others' shoulders, both of their muscles looked relaxed and calm, as if putting their arm around the other was just common nature. And they both wore easy smiles.

Claire smiled to herself. One day she'd like to be that close to someone.

"Yeah, that's my brother," startled, Claire whipped herself around to see who had spoken to her. A young male-nurse, the same man from the picture, smiled back at her. Her cheeks flushed and she set the frame back on the desk.

"I'm sorry, I'm not usually this nosy," She apologized, embarrassed.

"Oh, no," he protested. "It's no big deal. I set it out to look at while I"m working. It calms me down a bit."

"He seems like a nice guy," she gestured towards the picture.

"He is," he folded his arms across his chest. "That is, if you get to know him. Otherwise he might come off as rude."

"Oh..." she trailed off. Were all the nurses this chatty? Or was he the only friendly one?

"So what brings you here today?" He smiled lopsidedly.

"Oh, um. My leg-I ran into-well, actually I-" She sighed heavily. "Um, can I start over?" she asked, embarrassed. A small laugh escaped his lips, and he nodded.

"I gashed my leg on a locker." She said, lifting her up her leg for him to see. His eyes widened slightly at the unnerving sight, and he motioned with his hand for her to sit down on the large chair in the center of the room. Claire complied, and he pulled himself up a stool, and bent over to take a good, long look at it.

The gash itself didn't look too bad anymore, but with the line of dried blood that ran along the rest of her leg, the sight was pretty horrific.

"Ah, I wish you would've said something sooner. I could've dropped what I was doing, it wasn't all that important." He said, examining the wound.

Claire leaned back in her chair, trying her best to relax, and stared up at the tiled ceiling.

"Ow, how bad does it hurt?" He asked, eyebrows raised in concern. Claire contemplated lying to him, but thought better against it. Besides, he was a nurse, _he_ would understand her condition. If he was ever to find out. It wasn't like she was telling the entire student body.

"You know, the funny thing is," Claire said, lifting herself up in a sitting position. "I can't feel a thing," She shook her head, half-smiling. The nurse tilted his head sideways, brows knit together in thought, and smiling at her lopsidedly.

"You can't feel it?" He questioned, disbelievingly.

"Nope." She confirmed, shrugging. He glanced down at her leg again, then back up at her, doubt evident on his face.

"That's a pretty deep gash," He said matter-of-factly. "If you can't feel that, you can't feel anything." he shook his head smiling.

Claire's eyes locked with his.

"I can't."

His smile suddenly faded, and he looked at her quizzically.

"What?" He asked, shocked. She sighed lightly.

"I can't feel anything. Haven't been able to for a while now," She rolled her eyes. "My doctor said it's a rare condition that causes an insensitivity to pain. So I literally can't feel anything." The nurse stared back at her, stunned, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Huh." He said, brows knit. "That's something I haven't heard before."

"You won't tell anyone, right?" She practically blurted.

"Not if you don't want me to," he put a hand on her shoulder. "Why? What's the big deal?" She turned her head away from him in shame.

"I..." Her voice got caught in her throat and tears began building up in her eyes. "I don't want to be considered a _freak_..." She said, barely audible. His brows lifted and his eyes were filled with pity.

"Hey," He said, trying to get her attention. "You're not a freak, okay?" She looked him in the eyes to confirm his sincerity.

"You're _special_." He finished, giving her a small smile.

Claire however, wasn't too happy with his answer.

She didn't want to be 'special' she wanted to be _normal_. And she couldn't even be that! This wasn't something about herself she could just _change_ to fit in with the rest of the crowd, this was something she had absolutely no power over whatsoever.

Nothing she could _do_ would make her feel again. It wasn't as simple as changing her clothes or changing her hair, it was something in her nerves or her brain. And there was nothing she, or anyone else could do to fix it.

"I don't want to be special..." She leaned her head on his shoulder, and cried. "I want to be normal!" Not knowing what else to do, he awkwardly put his arms around her, and gave her a reassuring pat on the back.

"Hey, it'll be fine." He said.

After about a few minutes, Claire recovered from her emotional outburst, and the nurse proceeded to fixing up her leg.

He got out several cotton balls, disinfectant, a Q-tip, some salve and fresh bandages, and got to work.

He dabbed some disinfectant on a few cotton balls, and cleaned up most of the dried blood. Then he blobbed some slave on the Q-tip, and put a little on the wounded area. Last, he covered the wound in fresh bandages, and sent her on her way.

Claire supposed going to the nurse's office wasn't _all_ that bad, she did get the needed medical attention she deserved, and the nurse wasn't so bad himself. Actually, he seemed pretty cool. And as far as she knew, her secret was perfectly safe with him.

It didn't go half as bad as she'd expected.

Claire was nearing shutting the office's door behind her, when a thought suddenly hit her. She opened the door just a crack, and peered inside to get one last glance at the nurse.

"Hey," She said, a smile playing on her lips. " I didn't catch your name." He looked back her, paperwork in hand, and smiled lopsidedly.

"Peter." He replied.

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><p><strong>AN I apologize for the slow update, but when you're working on more than five stories at a time, chances are some stories will be updated later than others. I didn't really have time to correct any spelling errors, so if you spot any be sure to tell me!  
><strong>

**The next chapter will be more about Claire and Zach, so be sure not to miss it.**


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